Workloads of network file server disk IO subsystems have very different
characteristics than observed in time sharing or local IO systems
described in the literature. In this study we provide a detailed
analysis of disk workload traces collected from network file servers.
Our results characterize file server disk traffic and give insights into
file server disk access patterns. Measurements and statistics presented
in this paper will aid designers and managers in developing and tuning
disk subsystems for network file servers. Moreover, our results can be
used by analysts to parameterize synthetic workloads for server
subsystem studies.